130 PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF MR. WATKINS TOTTLE. 



" He's mad !" Parsons whispered his wife, as they entered the 

 drawing-room, " mad from modesty." 



" Dear me !" ejaculated the lady, e< I never heard of such a 

 thing." 



" You'll find we have quite a family dinner, Mr. Tottle," said 

 Mrs. Parsons, when they sat down to table ; " Miss Lillerton is one 

 of us, and, of course, we make no stranger of you." 



Mr. Watkins Tottle expressed a hope that the Parsons family never 

 would make a stranger of him, and wished internally that his bash- 

 fulness would allow him to feel a little less like a stranger himself. 



" Take off the covers, Martha," said Mrs. Parsons, directing the 

 shifting of the scenery with great anxiety. The order was obeyed, 

 and a pair of boiled fowls, with tongue and et ceteras, were displayed 

 at the top, and a fillet of veal at the bottom. On one side of the table 

 two green sauce-tureens, with ladles of the same, were setting to each 

 other in a green dish ; and on the other was a curried rabbit, in a 

 brown suit, turned up with lemon. 



" Miss Lillerton, my dear," said Mrs. Parsons, " shall I assist 

 you ?" 



" Thank you, no ; I think I'll trouble Mr. Tottle." 



Watkins started trembled helped the rabbit and broke a tum- 

 bler. The countenance of the lady of the house, which had been all 

 smiles previously, underwent an awful change. 



" Extremely sorry," stammered Watkins, assisting himself to currie, 

 and parsley and butter, in the extremity of his confusion. 



"Not the least consequence," replied Mrs. Parsons, in a tone 

 which implied that it was of the greatest consequence possible, di- 

 recting aside the researches of the boy, who was groping under the 

 table for the bits of broken glass. 



" I presume," said Miss Lillerton, " that Mr. Tottle is aware of 

 the interest which bachelors usually pay in such cases ; a dozen 

 glasses for one is the lowest penalty/' 



Mr. Gabriel Parsons gave his friend an admonitory tread on the 

 toe. Here was a clear hint that the sooner he ceased to be a bachelor, 

 and emancipated himself from such penalties, the better. Mr. Wat- 

 kins Tottle viewed the observation in the same light, and challenged 

 Mrs. Parsons to take wine, with a degree of presence of mind which 

 under all the circumstances, was really extraordinary. 



" Miss Lillerton," said Gabriel, "may I have the pleasure?" 



" I shall be most happy." 



" Tottle will you assist Miss Lillerton, and pass the decanter. 

 Thank you." (The usual pantomimic ceremony of nodding and 

 sipping, gone through) 



" Tottle, were you ever in Suffolk?" enquired the master of the 

 house, who was burning to tell one of his seven stock stories. 



" No," responded Watkins, adding, by way of a saving clause, 

 " but I've been in Devonshire/' 



" Ah !" replied Gabriel, " it was in Suffolk that a rather singular 

 circumstance happened to me, many years ago. Did you ever 

 happen to hear me mention it ?" 



Mr. Watkins Tottle had happened to hear his friend mention it 



